1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to data communication. More specifically, certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus to enable automatic power saving for communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
With the rise of the Internet and fast development of communication technologies, more and more electronic communications, network-based business transactions and other forms of online data communications result in an ever-rising volume of network traffic. In particular, networks of various sizes including the Internet are supported by network devices that communicate with one another over a variety of physical mediums such as twisted-pair phone lines, coaxial cable, power line, optical fiber and Ethernet cable, for example. As network devices require electrical power to operate whether or not the network device is transmitting signals with payload data, it is desirable to reduce the power consumed by networking devices especially in view of the global trend of conservation of energy.
For data communications based on the Digital Subscriber Line technologies (sometimes summarized as xDSL), such as for example Very-high-speed DSL (VDSL), VDSL2, Asymmetric DSL 2 (ADSL2) and ADSL2+, power efficiency is an important issue that needs to be resolved. This is also important for xDSL-like approach to be adopted by G.fast. One approach that attempts to achieve reduction in power consumption requires adding various power states such as L2 or L1. However, such approach tends to add complexity to xDSL systems without significant rewards and works only in specific situations.
Therefore, there is a need for an alternative approach that can result in significant reduction in power consumption and is not complex in terms of implementation.